Work Text:
When Kaidan leaves Vancouver after Brain Camp, he takes few items along with him – a bag of clothes, his coveted omni-tool, and a guitar. Not one of the sleek, semi-modern synthetic ones, but a battered, old-fashioned, actual physical guitar. It once belonged to his paternal grandmother, who had inherited it from her uncle, who had likely been given it by someone else, stretching a long line all the way back to when physical guitars were the norm.
It’s old and warped and the wood has bleached in some places and there’s one string that doesn't quite tune correctly. It’s been called numerous things over the years – old, ‘classic’, ’vintage’ (mockingly), battered, waste of space, piece of sh-t – but to Kaidan he just thinks of it as his.
Wherever he goes, the guitar follows him.
He picks up random jobs in an assortment of places, working long enough to finish his temporary contract before moving on. He works as a miner, waiter, chef, store assistant, anywhere that will take him. His stint as a chef impressed his employer who pleaded with him to stay – he had skill, talent, a natural flair for cooking. Kaidan just apologised and moved on.
He stays in shoddy, run-down places with little excess money to spare. After rent comes food costs, then bills. More than once he’s had electricity cut off due to not being able to afford it, but he can’t cut back on rent or food. Despite that, when someone offers to buy his guitar for much more than it’s worth, Kaidan declines.
His last job, and longest-lasting at almost a year, was at a nightclub. Loud music and strobing lights don’t mesh well with the migraines he’s been getting for nigh-on six years now, but he pushes through. He stays behind the bar, learning how to pour a perfect pint and seemingly running through as many cocktail variations as there were stars visible. He chats amicably with clients, and when his boss overhears a discussion about Kaidan knowing how to play the guitar, Kaidan finds himself booked in to play a session the following Wednesday.
Despite all the guitar’s faults and eccentricities, people loved it. He made more in tips that one night than he earned in a week, questions as to when his next session was and his boss saying “maybe we should make this a habit”.
A habit it becomes. Kaidan’s able to breathe easier about paying bills, affording food, and can afford less essential things.
The nightclub was stationed at a station along a trading route, gaining a lot of passing trade. More than once, Alliance personnel appear and Kaidan looks at them almost wistfully, thinking of his own father retiring when he was little more than a baby. Thinks of the old fashioned books and vids of space travel.
One day, one of the Alliance soldiers comments to Kaidan’s boss about a recruitment poster plastered up along the corridor. Mentions about the Alliance wanting new soldiers and wanting biotics, offering hefty recruitment bonuses.
Kaidan takes some time after work to wander down and look at the poster, thinking things over.
The next day at work, he hands in his notice. His guitar makes it back to Vancouver, nestled in his childhood bedroom, huddled away as an argument tears through between Kaidan and his father. The guitar stays in Vancouver through basic, Kaidan’s first ship-side assignment, through being assigned to the Normandy. It stays during Anderson’s resignation, Shepard becoming CO, Spectre, Saviour of the Citadel.
When Kaidan moves to the Citadel after the destruction of the Normandy and the death of Shepard, the guitar follows him. He finds a nightclub that has an open mic night, impresses them enough to become a regular. His songs are more wistful, mourning, but gradually change over the months to more hopeful, more uplifting.
He leaves the guitar in his apartment when he goes to Horizon. When he comes back, the songs at the nightclub are mournful once more.
The guitar gets abandoned when the Reaper War starts. Before he heads back to where the Normandy is docked, to plead his case to once more be on her crew, he goes back to his apartment and, alone, plays one more song of hope.